<sub>Branding is about making your business stand out from your competition, and achieving a price premium in your category. A lot a New Zealand businesses follow what their competition does and therefore find the need to resort to price battles and fail to stand out.

Stand out brands include 42 Below, Virgin Atlantic, Mike Pero Mortgages, Michael Hill, Jockey, The Mad Butcher, Tony’s Tyres and Tui. They have achieved price premium as they are known for their brand personality above what they cost. These brands do so well because the people behind them know who they areas a brand and what they’re all about as a business and have effectively and consistently told their brand story.

Think big. Imagine if your business brand could stand out like these brands do.</sub>

• _{tell us where they stand}
• _{create emotional relationships with us}
• _{are intense in their actions}
• _{are highly intrusive, noisy and we can’t help but notice them}

_{When you think about Virgin you expect something from them when you go on their flights and you do, you get what you want when you want it. Two factors this brand carries are:}

• _{Self belief}
• _{Product/service performance}

_{When thinking about your own identity, look at:}

• _{What drives your company, what are your core beliefs, what is your history}
• _{Your first customers – what attracted them to you}
• _{Your competitor’s weaknesses? What positives can you gain from their faults, what can you do differently?}

<sub>To stand out from your competition start making noise, start doing things and start getting noticed.

Stop following everyone else’s rules and change them in the way you represent yourselves, the different mediums you use to market yourselves and the product experience. Get away from the same old stuff and be visible!

Then eliminate anything that could dilute your identity and what product/service you offer, this could mean sacrificing certain markets and offerings and being really targeted in your markets or focused on one area of your offerings. In other words think about where your business is going and stick to what you’re really good at! You must stand out, and this is the key.

Use advertising and publicity as an asset to your business, if your existing plan isn’t working and your customers aren’t listening and looking, then you need a creative idea, something simple, but clever.

Something so good it creates folklore – stories that are told and passed between consumers.

Folklore starts through:</sub>

• _{Bragging rights: the first to discover something their friends don’t know}
• _{Product enthusiasm: coming across a fact that is startlingly impressive}
• _{Aspirational identity: Finding a brand that fits with their ethics or philosophy}
• _{New value: Coming across an activity that has surprised, shocked or entertained them.}

_{Your challenge is to constantly re-new yourself in the consumers mind.}

_{It’s time for your business to move forward by standing out from your competition. You have the talent and the knowledge in your business and Brandits have the ideas, we create awareness, stimulate attraction and promote action!}

_{“There are two types of people in the world; people who talk about doing things and people who do things.}

_{My advice is to stick to the latter as there is less competition”}